High Speed Two (HS2) Rail Network

HS2 Announcement July 2017

HS2 Ltd and the Department for Transport have announced information on changes to the HS2 route and related compensation schemes. Along with the deposit of the Bill in Parliament for Phase 2a of the HS2 route (Lichfield to Crewe), announcements have been made in relation to Phase 2b (the Crewe to Manchester and Birmingham to Leeds routes).

The Safeguarding guidance for property owners has been updated and a Rural Support Zone has been launched for Phase 2b, following the property consultation that concluded earlier in 2017. All of the information about the route change can be found on gov.uk.

A new version of the Statutory Blight and Express purchase guidance has been produced. The full set of Safeguarding Directions for Phase 2b has been re-published and all Local Planning Authorities have been contacted.

Advice to Property Owners

Property owners who are subject to change in safeguarding should have received letters from HS2 outlining the following changes:

Inclusion of a newly proposed rolling stock depot site to the East of Leeds which is now subject to consultation

Removal of safeguarding (and hence all zoned schemes) from the 2016 route in the Measham (Leicestershire) area which passed to the South East of Measham.

Introduction of safeguarding for an area to the North West of Measham.

New Rural Support Zone guidance is now available and Rural Support Zone plans have been published. These primarily confirm the ‘corridor’ that was consulted on previously but there are some changes to the urban/rural split where the Rural Support Zone begins and ends, which will bring more properties into the Rural Support Zone. For more information visit gov.uk.

Compensation Schemes

Homeowner Payments which are shown on all plans are not available for Phase 2b until after the Bill has been passed by Parliament (received Royal Assent), which is expected to be 2022.

The Need to Sell scheme which was launched last November for the Phase 2b route has been re-confirmed by the announcement on the consultation and hence remains open for applications from those who have already been trying to sell their property and have a compelling reason to sell, but cannot due to the impact of HS2 on the local property market. For more information on this visit gov.uk/claim-compensation-if-affected-by-hs2.

Useful Links

Below are links to all the useful Government web pages and documents mentioned above.